On its own, Mara in Summer is the perfect game if you have plenty of time and are not looking for a challenge. The main protagonist, Koa, is a very charming protagonist and the idea of sailing from Island to Island while meeting new residents and saving your own Island is a pretty neat concept. However, with stagnant characters, quality of life issues, and strange platforming issues, Summer in Mara feels like it's in desperate need for a quick tune up much like Koa’s boat!
When I began my playthrough of Summer in Mara by the indie studio Chibig on the Nintendo Switch I was greeted with warm colors, relaxing music, an open sea, and a little girl sitting on a roof outlooking the ocean waiting for her story to be told. I did not know what to expect, but all I knew was that I was in for an adventure. So, how did my adventure go? Let’s dive deep into Summer in Mara to find out!
Exploring the Open Seas! The plot of Summer in Mara!
Summer in Mara is a single-player RPG adventure and a farming sim where you play as a young girl named Koa. After Yaya Haku, Koa’s adoptive guardian passes away, Koa inherits her Island, simply named Home Island. But, in order to keep the Island and herself alive, she has to venture into the great open-world known as Mara. While also gathering new recipes and helping the residents of different Islands, Koa’s adventure becomes even greater when she tries to save Mara and its residents from an evil organization that wants to exploit all the resources for themselves. Along the way, you meet characters like Napopo, a pink sea-shell-like sea creature who acts as Koa’s navigator, and Onzo, a cat adventurer who takes you in as his underling so you can learn more about the world!
Your adventure begins with Yaya Haku teaching and tasking Koa to help prepare her for when she will one day take over the Island. After Yaya Haku passes away, Koa forgets pretty much everything she was ever taught, and somehow years later she has survived on just eating berries and drinking berry juice. The Island is in ruins and your task is building it from the ground up again. After meeting Napopo, she decides to leave the Island and help get her back home and you are tossed into the world of completing quests and errands for the residents of Mara in order to complete her journey.
Graphics and Characters sweeter than Sea Salt Taffy? The positives of Summer in Mara!
The animated cutscenes of Summer in Mara are very pleasing to look at. You can tell they were drawn with love and a strong sense to tell a story about adventure. The game’s warm colors made me feel like I was playing a mashup of Harvest Moon and Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. It was a feeling that I really enjoyed.
Koa is a very charming and memorable protagonist. There are moments in the game where you will be interrupted by Koa thinking out loud about her past, or making a comment about something she saw, reminding us that she is still a child in the big world she is exploring. It’s nice to explore the world of Mara through Koa, as it makes the world even bigger and wonderful. The feeling can only be described as like a kid in a candy store… or maybe the world is your oyster!
Another concept I found interesting in the game was traveling from Island to Island by boat. Although it could use some polishing, the idea of having a base Island and collecting items and meeting residents from other Islands is very nice and something that games like Animal Crossing or even Stardew Valley don’t have to offer.
Rough Seas… Enough to Abandon Ship? The Negatives with Summer in Mara!
So we’ve addressed what makes Summer in Mara a charming game to play, but what about the negatives? Well, there were some not so charming problems that occurred in my adventure that made me want to almost abandon ship.
The game has some major quality of life problems that could easily be fixed with an update or patch. The tutorial throws you into the mechanics of the game and is a harsh reminder that it isn’t going to hold your hand as much as you think it is even when you want it to. For example, I found myself confused a few times, especially in the beginning when having a hard time navigating even through Home Island looking for characters or items because of the lack of a map.
The biggest problem for me was that the recipes are not visible unless you are on Home Island and could only be made there. This means that you could be very far from Home Island and have to travel all the way back in order to even see your recipes and make things for quests. The more I found myself having to go back to Home Island the less I wanted to pick up and play more of the game. It really hurt the pacing overall. This could be solved by having a small area on each Island where Koa can craft and view recipes. But, with not being able to craft items on the spot, it makes the quests feel like never-ending errands and quests themselves very tedious and time consuming.
While trying to grow cotton to make thread so that I could speak to someone just to meet with another character, I had to go back to the Home Island, plant the crops, and fast forward two days, then sail all the way back to the Island. This would have been fine since it was one of the first major quests, but the problem was that for those two days, there was nothing else to do than to take a nap and wait for the cotton crops to finish growing. I wish more quick and easy tasks had been placed between that to help polish the worldbuilding and the characters of Mara.
So, what did I do the most in the game? I took naps… a lot of naps. Even more than I do in real life. Traveling back to Home Island and sleeping is the only way to fast forward to the next day. This exists in the game because in order to quickly progress time or regain your energy back, you have to sleep either at your house, or only gain a little bit of energy back from sleeping on your boat. In the game, there is an option to sleep at an Inn on the Island you’re visiting, but early on in the game you have no money and it’s very overpriced. Geez, Yaya you could have at least left us a little cash huh?
NPCs are pretty stationary and I felt like time was frozen around me. They also have dialogue boxes over their heads as you approach them, but unfortunately on my Nintendo Switch, the words were blurry or too small and sometimes hard to read. The environment really lacked life and it made the Islands seem a little dull. With stagnant NPCs, the developers could have added animations to them to make them feel a little more alive, or even do text boxes and drawn characters like how Koa interacts with main characters like Yaya or Napopo. I find it a bit disappointing that only Koa and a few characters have personality. Most of the time I was being told to go away or being insulted for being a child, proving that the world isn’t too kind to Koa. The game does not really take the time to explore its characters and the residents of Mara. Instead, it has us being an errand girl and not talking much to the people we are running the errands for.
I found other issues with the game’s platforming. I was trying to jump over on a small rock trying to collect seashells and talk to Napopo but kept falling into the water. This was the most challenging part of my adventure. When you are sailing from Island to Island, you don’t have to worry about running out of fuel. You have an energy meter for being in the water too long and when it runs out you are warped near land. Same goes for eating and sleeping. It honestly makes these things pointless and I wish that the developers had taken the time to make a bigger ‘punish system’. At least make us lose some crafting items if we fall asleep or maybe lose a day if we pass out from exhaustion.
Conclusion
Summer in Mara is a game that can help keep your mind off a trip to the beach while in quarantine. With some improvements to the quality of life features, Summer in Mara has the potential to become a wonderful experience for taking it easy with Island living.
On its own, Mara in Summer is the perfect game if you have plenty of time and are not looking for a challenge. The main protagonist, Koa, is a very charming protagonist and the idea of sailing from Island to Island while meeting new residents and saving your own Island is a pretty neat concept. However, with stagnant characters, quality of life issues, and strange platforming issues, Summer in Mara feels like it’s in desperate need for a quick tune up much like Koa’s boat! For those who want more of an adventurous open-world experience or even less time consuming crafting system, you may want to hold off on setting sail for a while.
